My parents senior black lab was diagnosed last month with a hematoma in her left ear. She needed to have surgery to remove it, a drain to remove the infection and two different types of antibiotics.

The pills aren't a problem, just wrap it up in cheese and she just takes it. The drops are another story, I'm sure it would be easier to give a feral cat drops then her. She acts like a wild animal, thrashing around, her legs scratching furiously up in the air, she's wearing a muzzle too. (No doubt in my mind, she would bite.)

When my parents and the dog are calm, I can put the drops in her ear with not too much problems. My parents get easily flustered with her behaviour, the dog feeds off their energy plus she's nervous so she really really acts up. She now knows, if she behaves like a wild beast, my parents give up and she wins

This morning, the infection went to her other ear, it's all red and terrible looking. My parents called the vet on her emergency cell phone, the vet said "put the drops in her other ear as well." Easier said then done. I've been at my parents house since 9:30 am, there's no way I can get the drops in.

We asked the vet, if we can give a tranquilizer to help calm her, the vet said NO! Too much medication for her. We asked if we can give her a pill form of these drops, the vet said "NO!" for the inner ear she needs drops.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call the clinic to see if I can bring her to clinic every day until this clears up so her vet techs can do it. It's so frustrating, I can't do it, putting drops in a dog ear shouldn't be hard.

Does anyone have advice how to put drops in a very nervous spoiled dogs ear?

PS: I know about rescue remedy, I will need to ask the vet if it's ok, because she's on antibotics.

Winston

June 28th, 2009, 11:21 AM

Poodletalk are you able to get the dog to lay on its side? if so maybe someone could hold her body while you put the drops in?

The only other thing i can think of is to wrap the dog in a blanket and try that way while its laying down?

I think what I need is, another person with me who's calm and knows what there doing. If we didn't allow her to win, she would calm down each time, it was ear drop time.

Normally, she's a very sweet loveable dog, she just hates the ear drops.

Jim Hall

June 28th, 2009, 11:54 AM

ambush ehr while she is sleeping

luckypenny

June 28th, 2009, 07:27 PM

Do you warm the ear drops up at all? Penny used to spaz out too until I got an ear infection myself and realized how terrible it felt to have to put cold drops in my ear. It's now a "sit/stay," quickly put in drops and jackpot her with yummy rewards as soon as it's done.

Frenchy

June 28th, 2009, 07:54 PM

PS: I know about rescue remedy, I will need to ask the vet if it's ok, because she's on antibotics.

Poodletalk , I've tried rescue remedy with my guys (for thunderstorms) first of all you have to give them an hour before .... and these are drops you have to put in her mouth so she might not let you do that either and the main thing is : rescue remedy never worked on my guys.

I read about Valerian , safe for dogs , you can get it at the natural store (Tau , in Brossard , should have it) but I haven't tried it yet so I don't know if it works. :shrug:

the gang

June 28th, 2009, 09:14 PM

i warm up the drops in warm water in a cup, hope this helps brenda and the pins

growler~GateKeeper

June 28th, 2009, 11:25 PM

Have you tried taking her outside in the backyard or into the car away from your parents and doing it there? A change in location plus being away from your stressed parents might help calm the dog down too.

My last dog didn't like having his nails cut but the only place he would allow me to do it was on the back deck, never in the house.

:fingerscr good luck

kandy

June 29th, 2009, 09:51 AM

I would also suggest someplace away from your parents. I can imagine that they are getting upset, and maybe voicing their concern that she just needs to be left alone - and of course the dog is going to react to their emotion. I'm sure she can sense your frustration too, so in her mind this is not a good thing. If you can take her to the vet everyday to have the drops administered, it would likely save her a lot of stress.

For doing it yourself, I don't have any suggestions on an actual technique - I've cleaned my dogs ears regularly since they were pups, so they eagerly line up for whatever I want to do to their ears because they associate that with getting a yummy something when it's done.

14+kitties

June 29th, 2009, 10:37 AM

Lots of good suggestions. I was going to say get her away from your parents, even if only the back yard. Don't let your parents even be looking out the window. Is it possible to play with her ears gently for a bit before putting the drops in or are they too painful? Warming the drops will probably help too. And having a treat ready that she can see will be good too.
As for it being easier to give a feral cat drops than her........ :laughing::laughing: would you like to come try? I have a few ferals you can practice on. :D

NoahGrey

June 29th, 2009, 11:01 AM

i warm up the drops in warm water in a cup

Are you sure that the drops are now to hot? Not trying to be rude or sound that you don't know what you are doing, but sometimes even testing it, to us it may not seem very warm or hot, but it might be to warm to your dogs ears.

To test the temp, your elbow is a good way to check the temp. I heard of using the inside of your wrist, however I have heard that it is not a good way of testing temp.

ACO22

poodletalk

June 29th, 2009, 11:19 AM

I have an appointment with the vet this evening to check her right ear. Depending what the vet says, she will have outstanding appointment for x amount of time with vet techs at the clinic to help me to get the drops in her ear.